Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 335 Rice: Students should indeed be restricted from entering and leaving Hogsmeade.

"calm!"

Daphne reacted swiftly to the unexpected visitor, drawing her wand to cast a spell on the black dog. But Rice was even faster; before Daphne could utter her incantation, he raised his hand and pressed her wand down.

Sirius, who had crawled into the hole in the Willow Tree, was also stunned. He had just been lying in front of the Willow Tree, lost in thought and reminiscing about the past, when he saw Rice's head flash briefly beneath the tree before disappearing.

Although he didn't know why Rice was there, the Whomping Willow was an extremely difficult creature to deal with. Sirius was worried about Rice's safety, so he immediately took action, using his agile skills to touch a knot on the Whomping Willow, paralyzing it, and then rushed into the burrow at the base of the tree.

When he rushed in, he was dumbfounded. He never expected that there would be a strange girl following Rice!

He was now in an awkward situation. Staying in his black dog form seemed likely to lead to misunderstandings, and reverting to human form was absolutely out of the question. For a moment, Sirius stood frozen in place, but thankfully Rice came to his rescue.

"Don't be afraid, everyone here is one of us—Daphne, calm down, put your wand away."

Daphne nodded and put the wand back in her pocket.

After Daphne lowered her guard, Rice turned to Sirius and told him not to worry, that Daphne was trustworthy.

Daphne: ?!

If she hadn't misheard, Rice had just called the big black dog in front of her Sirius?! Could it be—

The next second, her guess was confirmed. The big black dog in front of her transformed into a handsome middle-aged man with an unconventional appearance.

Daphne blinked quickly. Judging from the man's face shape and facial features, he did indeed look a lot like Sirius Black from the wanted poster.

"Let me introduce you. This is Sirius Black, and this is Daphne Greengrass."

Sirius and Daphne were both a little awkward in front of "strangers," but with Rice as the middleman, they still shook hands with each other calmly.

After shaking hands, an awkward silence fell over the small tunnel.

After a while, the two spoke at the same time—

"Rice—"

"Linte—"

The two looked at each other and then shut their mouths.

Rice felt it would be better to step forward and offer some explanations himself.

"As you can see, Sirius is an Animagus, just like the rat we bought from Ron before. By the way, Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew."

Rice's short sentence completely shut Daphne down, and it took her a long time to realize what had happened.

"It's a complicated story, but in short, Sirius Black is innocent, and the real guilty one is Peter Pettigrew, who was posthumously awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class."

Daphne was struggling to process the news she had just heard. The fact that the identities of the sinner and the hero had been completely reversed was simply unbelievable.

"That's right, after I saw Peter alive in Azkaban, I tried everything I could to escape, just to make that guy pay the price." After Sirius finished speaking, he nervously observed the little girl's reaction.

Fortunately, judging from her expression, the little girl seemed to believe what she had said.

"So where do you usually live? Do you usually live here?" Daphne pointed in the direction of the screaming shack behind her.

"I usually live in the Forbidden Forest and occasionally go to Hagrid's house to freeload." Sirius licked his lips. Although Hagrid liked to add all sorts of strange things to the dishes, the overall taste was still quite good, and the dishes were quite oily. He had been eating there for more than a month and felt like he had made up for all the energy he had lost in Azkaban.

"I should be asking you that. How did you end up here?" After explaining his situation, Sirius began to inquire why the two of them were there.

"I heard the Screaming Shack was haunted, so I went in to check it out. I found a secret passage inside and ended up here."

After hearing what Rice said, Sirius laughed and told Rice not to take the ghost story of the Screaming Shack to heart. It was originally a place that the school lent to werewolf students to spend their full moon transformation period. Those "ghostly howls" were actually the cries of pain from the werewolves.

However, to protect his friend's privacy, Sirius cleverly concealed Lupin's name and didn't tell the two that the werewolf student from back then was Lupin.

"Look, a perfectly ordinary event has been spread around a few times and turned into something outrageous," Rice said, laughing at Daphne. "Don't believe everything you hear in the future."

"Alright, shall we hurry over to Honeydukes? I still want to buy some new and interesting candies." In Rice's eyes, the Screaming Shack incident had come to a satisfactory conclusion, and now it was time to get back to today's main topic.

"Of course." Daphne was speechless after learning the truth about the Screaming Shack. With its mystery completely unveiled, the fear that had surrounded her vanished instantly. She just wanted to get out of this boring place as soon as possible.

Sirius looked at the two of them, hesitant to speak. He also wanted to go to Hogsmeade, not to go shopping, but to see if he could run into Harry who had sneaked out. He knew Harry wasn't qualified to enter Hogsmeade, but he felt that James' son was unlikely to be bound by the rules.

"I think you can come with us to Hogsmeade, as long as you can accept wearing this kind of thing." Rice casually conjured up a collar.

Sirius remained silent for a moment, then transformed back into his black dog form and tacitly allowed Rice to put a collar on him.

The two people and their "dog" returned to Hogsmeade Village. By this time, the village streets were already bustling with people. Rice was preparing to head to Honeydukes for a shopping spree when the door of a shop on the side of the road was suddenly pushed open.

"Welcome to visit us again!"

As the shopkeeper called out, a young man with red hair carrying a package came out. Rice recognized him; the red-haired youth was Percy of the Weasley family.

"Hi, Percy!" he greeted Percy.

"Oh! Ah—it's Lint, hello!" Percy was startled by Rice, a blush rising to his cheeks as he quickly stuffed the package into his arms without stopping.

"First time in Hogsmeade, huh? It's lively here, isn't it? Be sure to check out Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop. I have to go now!" Percy rattled off a long string of words in a flash, then dashed off like a shot.

Rice narrowed his eyes; his intuition told him that Percy must have done something shady.

He glanced at the shop Percy had come out of; it was a small shop selling raw materials and finished potions, so he pushed open the door and went inside as well.

The shop owner was tidying up when he noticed a pretty young girl following behind Rice, and his eyes lit up.

"Please come in quickly. Our shop specializes in selling all kinds of potions and potion raw materials. We can definitely provide you with what you want."

Rice's gaze fell on the small bottle of potion in the shop owner's hand.

Seeing this, the shop owner gave a knowing smile.

"Here, please. We also sell potions to create a more wonderful atmosphere, extend the duration, and ensure safety..." The shop owner said, taking out several small bottles filled with potions and arranging them on the counter.

Rice immediately understood Hogwarts' good intentions: the students' entry and exit from Hogsmeade did indeed need to be controlled!

How come Hogsmeade these days even has merchants selling things like this?!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Update here~

There will be another chapter tonight, you can read it when you get up in the morning.

(End of this chapter)